Titanic Emergency Lifeboat No. 1

Titanic emergency lifeboat 1. The fourth boat lowered on the starboard side. When boats 7, 5 and 3 had been filled and lowered, few people remained on the forward starboard boat deck. Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon with his wife and her secretary were among those few. They entered boat 1 as did two American gentlemen; one of whom (Charles Stengel) had seen his wife into boat 5 a few minutes earlier. Five stokers were ordered in as well as lookout Symons, in charge of the boat, and an able seaman. There were 12 in it, whereas the capacity was 40. It seems likely that the boat was lowered away with so few people in it so that the two collapsible boats nearby could be sent away as soon as possible. Later, Sir Cosmo would be accused of bribing the crew in the boat in order for them not to row back to the wreck. Apparently, this was a misunderstanding; Sir Cosmo tried to be nice and wanted the crew to get five pounds each to get new material when they reached safety.